I had a key with the same gimmick when I was a very young magician, bought from the Douglas catalogue. I believe the instructions were to attach it to the back of one hand while showing the palms empty and slip it into one hand while turning the hands over to show the backs. I never thought of attaching it to clothing. That would have been less painful!

This reminds me of the trick by Al Jaffee in The Mad Book of Magic. You hollow out the inside of a coin, put a drop of nitroglycerin in it, and seal it back up. When it's laying on a table, you slap it. The explosion makes points of metal stick upwards, like a Karate Coin. The points embed into your hand, and you can raise it and the coin comes with the hand. A vanish as clean as a Raven!

Johnson Products could learn from this. I bought one of their Kennedy half hooked coins many years ago and it was made using the first method in your PDF. About a month after I bought it the needle point fell out.

I can't tell for sure but to me it looks like your examples are non-silver. If I were to attempt to make one out of a Walker half, do you have any recommendation of what kind of solder to use that will bond a steel needlepoint to silver. Also, it looks like a small notch may have been made before soldering in the needle point on one of the examples. Am I correct?

Thanks again for all of the information you've shared (and for the Mini Cups that I was lucky enough to acquire from you years ago.)

Bill,I had a hooked key too way back when I was a kid. I attached a loop of thread from a nylon hose to it. The thread loop went over my right thumb. Pin on key was down as I openly placed the key onto left hand. The fingers were closed over the key. The key was withdrawn. Right hand placed on spectator's shoulder as he/she was invited to watch closely and key hooked to the shoulder. Left hand fingers moved around a bit then hand was opened to reveal vanish. I was totally clean after the vanish. The hooked key is still good.

John,I file a small "V" notch and precision weld the pin into position. No solder is used. The steel needle and coin metal form a new alloy under an argon gas shield. The downside to this great technique is the $8,000 price of the welder!Jim

John M. Dale wrote:Thanks for this information, Jim.

Johnson Products could learn from this. I bought one of their Kennedy half hooked coins many years ago and it was made using the first method in your PDF. About a month after I bought it the needle point fell out.

I can't tell for sure but to me it looks like your examples are non-silver. If I were to attempt to make one out of a Walker half, do you have any recommendation of what kind of solder to use that will bond a steel needlepoint to silver. Also, it looks like a small notch may have been made before soldering in the needle point on one of the examples. Am I correct?

Thanks again for all of the information you've shared (and for the Mini Cups that I was lucky enough to acquire from you years ago.)

This reminds me of the trick by Al Jaffee in The Mad Book of Magic. You hollow out the inside of a coin, put a drop of nitroglycerin in it, and seal it back up. When it's laying on a table, you slap it. The explosion makes points of metal stick upwards, like a Karate Coin. The points embed into your hand, and you can raise it and the coin comes with the hand. A vanish as clean as a Raven!

Jim Riser wrote:John,I file a small "V" notch and precision weld the pin into position. No solder is used. The steel needle and coin metal form a new alloy under an argon gas shield. The downside to this great technique is the $8,000 price of the welder!Jim

Well, I'm not going to spend $8000 for a tool I don't even know how to use.

However, I work for a company that employs a number of expert precision welders doing MIG, TIG, Stick and gas welding on copper, steel, nickel, silver and probably other metals that I'm not aware. If you're willing to share any info on the details of what's needed to do this with a stainless steel needle point welded to a silver half that I can convey to the people I work with I'd be interested in hearing it.

Actually the first trick in the David Berglas trick is with a hooked coin! Although he was using it more as an illustration of how you can do a simple vanish of a coin in a large theatre and make even more amazing than a large illusion.

I had one of those when I was a kid but never used it. I think I accidentally spent it!

Jim,I'm seeing nothing in my PM inbox. I've checked all of the forum settings and it looks like I have them set correctly. There was a problem with the PM system a while back but I thought it was resolved. If you would be so kind, please send the information to hardeen(at)comcast.net (You may already have my email address as I recently purchased your Penny Punches and some years ago purchased a set of your original Mini Cups.) Thanks again,JMD

I have receive several emails from old magic friends who remember when I was actively doing magic rather than making it. Yes, I did a variation with the hooked coin where I hooked it on the back side of my necktie. No loop on the coin with this version. The Hooked Half Dollar was shown on the palm of my right hand - hook at 12 o'clock and down. The left hand palm up was held out to receive the coin. It was apparently transferred from the right hand but retained by the right thumb. When the right hand was withdrawn with the palm down, the coin fell onto the right finger tips. In this position I could hang it on the back of my necktie as I seemingly straightened the tie. Then I went ahead and vanished the coin that was supposed to be in my left hand. This left me clean after the vanish. I used the hooked coin lots in the old days when I used to wear a tie.Jim

OK, here is the third vanish I used to do with my hooked half. The coin is placed on the second joint of the left hand middle two fingers - pin up and at 6 o'clock. The breast pocket handkerchief is removed and given a quick shake to open it out. The left hand is covered with the pocket square. As soon as the hooked coin is covered, the left forefinger goes up over the edge of the coin and applies a little pressure to cause the hook end of the coin to pivot up a bit. In this position the hook can grab onto the silk of the pocket square as it is drawn over the hand. The cloth is slowly slid from the left hand carrying the hooked coin with it. Left hand is shown empty as the pocket square hangs held by its corner between the first two fingers of the right hand. Both hands are shown empty and everything appears as it should. Hank with the coin is placed back in the breast pocket. Done quite slowly, it makes for a nice vanish.

I remember there was a guy in one of the shops with a stack of coins; silver dollars and a shell AND a hook coin made from the same kind of (Morgan) silver dollars. David Roth was next to me and asked to look at the coins and the guy gave them to David to look at but the pin pricked Roth's finger and he yelled "And you didn't think to warn me about the PIN?" It was sort of funny at the time. The finger healed in time and the rest is history.

Seriously, though, and being mainly a manipulator, I have a hard time thinking when having a hook coin would be better than having a good classic palm...probably harder to obtain. Again, I'm probably wrong. Maybe even a workable fake-take (or fake-'put') working out of finger palm. Regards